Binocularity in Comitant Esotropia and Exotropia

With a series of experiments, it is shown that both in concomitant small-angle esotropia and exotropia, one can find wide areas of overlapping of the visual fields of the two eyes. This type of overlapping is defined as anomalous binocular vision. In this group of patients no suppression scotomas were detected. This is due to the fact that the test-targets were fusable stimuli, with appropriate controls for binocularity. The same patients, tested with more artificial (or ‘dissociating’) techniques, exhibited suppression scotomas in the identical areas where anomalous binocularity was found with our technique. In patients with large-angle exotropia, suppression scotomas were always present. However, their shape was strongly influenced by the testing technique.